


A Spark in the Dark

by novadiablo



Category: Marvel, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Developing Relationship, M/M, Science Bros
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-07
Updated: 2012-12-28
Packaged: 2017-11-20 13:24:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/585829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/novadiablo/pseuds/novadiablo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark is good at hiding things – he always has been. (note: due to the extension of this fic later chapters will become explicit - they are not vital to the story and can be skipped over if one wishes)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> An unbetaed stream of consciousness look at Bruce and Tony's relationship that might be rubbish but it's late and I'm posting it anyway.

Tony Stark is good at hiding things – he always has been. A smirk and a snarky comment and everyone is laughing or yelling at him and he can get a solid grip on any emotions that may have leaked out of the tightly wound bundle of fucked-up he keeps stored in his brain. That’s why when he first sees Dr Banner he doesn’t show the surprise on his face and he keeps all fanboy tendencies well clear of this lab they are in and he pokes him in the fucking side instead and he thinks Bruce appreciates that.

Tony can’t help the feeling of being kicked in the stomach showing on his face when the man so casually tells them he has tried to kill himself, and it’s ridiculous because Tony’s only known him for a few hours and he already wants to go back in time and stop him from doing that or at least hold him now and make him see that if he just learns to control it everything would be okay and since when does Tony Stark want to hold anyone?

Tony can’t stop his voice wavering after Coulson’s been killed by Loki because Coulson was one of them, he wasn’t Fury and he was just doing his job and fuck, he and Pepper were _friends_ , and he had that cellist on the side, but only the Captain was there to see the glimmer of angry tears in the corner of his eyes and the break in his voice and Tony gave up giving a shit what he thought when he went all high and mighty – which was when they first met.

The first time he saw Bruce smile – actually smile, not just some wry grimace – was when he poked him with a screwdriver, and Tony thinks that maybe he was just relieved someone wasn’t deathly afraid of him, even if it was supremely stupid. Tony looks into Bruce’s eyes but there’s no green there, just a docile brown that hides so much more, but then of course Steve comes in and tells him off for making a sad man smile.

Bruce tells him later that he let himself transform into the Hulk during the Chitauri attack because he landed naked in a warehouse and a man gave him trousers. It wasn’t the trousers, he explains when Tony’s face betrays his lack of understanding, that it was the words, the implication that maybe the Hulk didn’t want to hurt people, and that he really did have ‘good aim’. Tony quietly agrees, thinking of his own freefall that day.

Tony looks back and thinks maybe he falls a little bit in love with Bruce watching him stuff fries in his mouth in a dusty shawarma joint looking for all intents and purposes like he’d been in a boxing match with a ‘bilgesnipe’ and the faintest of smiles appears on his face, one that’s mirrored by Thor. It’s a quiet acknowledgement that he can relax somewhat, and Tony knows he just has to take him home.

When they drive off in Tony’s car after farewelling Thor and his snipey little brother, Tony can’t help but grin. Bruce is smiling too, and it’s a little absent but it’s there and it’s real and it’s happening far more often. It’s been a matter of days but Tony has seen Bruce transform from the awkward little man trying to make himself small and unnoticed to someone who stands a little taller and speaks more confidently, and Tony is glad of this, because _that brain._

Showing Bruce through his tower takes three days and he loves every second of it. Bruce is what Tony desperately wanted when he was younger – someone who was sufficiently impressed with all of his stuff because he _gets it_ , not because it’s shiny. Bruce starts right away on working on some sort of biochemical engineering unit that Tony didn’t get yet (he would the next day) and he probably falls a little bit more in love then.

The Avengers have plenty of battles in the following months and Bruce doesn’t have the chance to leave like Tony knows he thinks he should. The Hulk hasn’t hurt anyone in that whole time unless he’s supposed to but Bruce doesn’t trust it to stay that way. It appears that Thor likes to recount their adventures to his fellow Asgardians and when they go to Asgard (and they do, and it’s awesome) the men and women there are in awe of Bruce even though he doesn’t show them his party trick once. They crowd around him, showering him in compliments about his strength and his loyalty and one of them tells him how amazed they all are that puny humans are capable of so much bravery and that their favourite part of the adventures is when Thor recounts the Hulk flying through the air to catch the Man of Iron, and that makes Tony smile.

When Bruce tells Tony about the experiments he did to himself Tony feels sick. When Bruce tells Tony about the experiments done on him many people coincidentally find themselves in developing countries with no money to their names. Few survive. When Bruce tells Tony about the times he was low – the bullet to the brain and how Hulk spat it out, the dive off a cliff in Mexico and the crater the Hulk left, the overdose on cocaine and the ensuing carnage of a trashed Hulk, the starvation and the Hulk tearing his way out and eating several sheep and a cow, the slices along his wrists and, eventually, the stabs to the chest – Tony cries and they don’t speak for three days. When they do it’s about pizza and this new arrow Bruce was thinking of for Clint.

Tony likes that Bruce doesn’t get his knickers in a twist when he gets hurt on a mission for SHIELD. Bruce gets that for Tony that’s what it’s about – the adrenaline, the brushes with death, the feeling of being invincible and, something that only Bruce gets: helping people. Pepper does though, she gets her knickers in so much of a twist that Tony cannot get them unknotted sometimes and eventually he stops bothering at all and they both agree the only reason for their relationship was to prove to themselves and each other that they couldn’t work and to clear the sexual tension that was becoming a distraction and they are all good, but when Pepper smiles and sadly tells him he’s not built for relationships he thinks she might be a little bit wrong. Afterwards he drags Bruce out for shawarma and blueberry ice cream because he feels like he’s failed some sort of a test and sometimes Tony likes to think of this as their first date.

Sometimes Bruce gets caught up in his work so much that he and the Hulk form some sort of weird team, where Bruce’s eyes glow a vivid green and he can pick up exceedingly heavy items with little effort and the Hulk stays human size and refrains from becoming monosyllabic and because Tony truly believes that the Hulk is everything Bruce has ever repressed about himself he sees this as the closest he’ll ever get to meeting Bruce before the gamma incident and he treasures every second of it just as much as he treasures the two of them separately. He would never ever tell Bruce about these times because Bruce would leave and that’s really not an option.

Sometimes looking at Bruce terrifies him but not because he can turn into a giant green rage monster at a moment’s notice, but because he’s pretty sure he’s never felt this way about anyone, and since when did Tony Stark think about feelings? But Bruce is just this guy with a brain more captivating than any pair of breasts Tony’s ever seen and these curly brown locks that just beg his fingers to touch and this dopey little smile that Tony is proud to see more often than anyone but the thing is Tony isn’t _gay_ , because despite what the press says, he may have had more than his fair share of women but he’s always considered himself pretty damn straight but maybe now he’s thinking that he might have been wrong, and that doesn’t scare him nearly as much as another revelation that’s been on his mind.

The Hulk becomes very protective of the team as they get to know Bruce. Tony doesn’t really thinking the Hulk hates Bruce, especially considering the amount of times he has saved Tony, a man Bruce has publically announced as his best friend. He likes to think it’s because Bruce feels like he belongs somewhere and maybe it doesn’t but it helps Tony sleep at night when he still sees faces and hears voices he doesn’t want to hear, and he used to get JARVIS to talk to him until he fell asleep but he’s way too awesome for that and thinking about Bruce is better (and worse but still better).

Bruce likes AC/DC. This is a fact that he didn’t share with Tony for a whole two months after they met. Tony had expected bizarre meditative voodoo music, but Bruce’s personal playlist is composed of Black Sabbath, Van Halen, The Who, Queen, David Bowie, Kiss, the Stone Roses and Airbourne amongst others, and to be entirely honest Tony thinks this is just the best thing ever, and he turns the music up in the lab they share now, and it’s then he realises he’s never really turned it down for anyone before Bruce.

Tony can tell Bruce gets upset about the way people treat him and he think that’s kinda awesome, because even though he can stand up for himself, why bother when you have a cute genius scientist who becomes a nine foot green monster when he’s pissed off defending your honour?

He knows that Bruce doesn’t like changing into the Hulk – he’s seen Bruce afterwards ( _properly_ afterwards, not ‘here’re your clothes and your room is that way’ afterwards) and he’s seen the way Bruce downs multiple anti-inflammatories and he’s seen the bruising and the lymph node swelling and he was there the five times Bruce has passed out and the one time he slipped into a coma, but he never really gets it until he asks. When he does, Bruce truthfully tells him it’s excruciating and suddenly Tony realises he’ll never understand but that doesn’t mean he’ll stop trying, especially when Bruce tells him it’s nothing compared to the pain of finding out you’re responsible for the deaths of countless people, and Tony falls just that little bit more in love with him.

Tony’s always thought that if they were going to get together in _that_ way it would be a slow courting process, with dates and holding hands and really slow make out sessions and monitoring Bruce’s heart rate and doing tests in the lab until they were certain and if they ever did get around to actual fucking it would be very slow and careful and probably all feely and gross (but not) and so what if Tony’s thought about it? When they finally do (and they do, and it’s awesome) it’s nothing like that at all.

Tony doesn’t notice the mashing of mouths together until he hits the wall with a resounding force and then he only notices Bruce tearing off his shirt and he’s always thought Bruce has looked sexy with rubble in his hair and if this is the way he reacts when Tony almost blows but half of R and D even though Bruce warned him not to he’s _definitely_ doing it more often. Soon though Bruce’s hand is on his dick, and then on _theirs_ together and Tony’s really _really_ never felt this way before. They go out for shawarma after.

Pepper looks at him sadly when Bruce takes his hand one evening at dinner and Tony looks at her seriously and her face changes a bit and he thinks she maybe gets it. The rest of the team barely even notice, and their _together_ togetherness goes entirely overlooked until an infestation of Kree kidnap Tony and the Hulk manages to dispose of _every single one of them_ with a deafening roar and then immediately transforms back into Banner, who takes Tony in his arms and kisses him like the world is ending, and they all take that as proof that the two creatures are capable of working together.

The press get a hold of it of course, and Bruce says to let them run amok and Tony feels like this is a good time to prove that Bruce isn’t just some phase, but really Fury is twenty times more terrifying than any magazine and Tony manages to stand up to him and Bruce’s smile is pretty big after that.

Bruce will never attribute his entire happiness to Tony because that would be unwise, and he would never believe that Tony was solely responsible for his ability to work with the Hulk developing, but soon Tony’s kisses don’t taste of alcohol anymore and the bags under his eyes fade and Bruce decides that maybe he can take a little credit for it after all. Like twelve per cent.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony Stark is good at hiding things – he always has been.

“… and I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”

The look on Bruce’s face was a mush of startled, flattered and wry and the way he was staring into Tony’s eyes was like he was looking for something, perhaps, or maybe he just wasn’t accustomed to being so close to another person – but the way his eyes dropped when Tony mentioned the Hulk allowed him to gauge just how soft that soft spot was. Tony hadn’t just become an expert on thermonuclear astrophysics last night – he’d also brushed up on some Bruce Banner too. He’d been following the guy’s work since he could be bothered to remember, and after that had a small hobby in monitoring the guy whenever he showed up on the radar as a giant green blip.

He didn’t let that show on his face, though – his expression was impassive and his voice unwavering, even though the incessant lip-licking (nervous tic? habit? dehydration?) and the warm hand holding a firm grip on his would set him off into his biggest babble of questions in most circumstances – he kicked the fangirl back behind the heavy, un-oiled door in his brain where he kept emotion as Fury came in.

“Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube,” Fury insisted, and as much as Tony loathed to take orders, especially from a man in an eye patch (cliché central here at SHIELD) the look he turned to find on Banner’s face – hopeful, inquiring but guarded, meant he couldn’t turn him down. That paired with the little snort elicited from him when Rogers got excited about _monkeys_ , caused Tony to ask Bruce out to play – he had to get this man into a room alone.

“…top ten floors, all R and D, you’d love it – it’s Candyland,” he invited Bruce over within minutes of them being there – the man was using the gamma reader like he was made for it, it was an extension of himself at that moment, the readings it displayed automatically converting six different ways in his head while Tony mucked around with his Stark tech. “I kind of… broke… Harlem,” the physicist insisted, turning him down, but Tony wasn’t worried – he knew he was very persuasive.

“I promise a stress-free environment, no tension, no surprises…” the sparking sound of the gamma equipment, the yell from Rogers and even Banner’s own low half-growl were completely drowned out by the pleased smile Banner no doubt felt guilty showing and the lick-lip (definitely habit) and the crinkles around those brown eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I started another fic with these two in but a negative comment kind of got me out of the groove, but when a lovely commenter hinted at an extension of this one-shot, I thought why not? It might be rubbish and I apologise if it is, and twenty-three chapters is probably a bit optimistic, but we'll see how it goes, eh? All feedback is cherished and coddled and given warm milk and bread with cheese and put to sleepy-byes with the utmost love :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Since when does Tony Stark want to hold anyone?

“You can’t, I know, I _tried_.”

It felt like Thor had just swung Mjolnir into Tony’s diaphragm – his stomach dropped, his chest panged and the ‘oh god’ his mind had knitted up showed on his face as clear as the daytime. He could feel his eyebrows creasing, his eyes widen, his mouth wasn’t shut and he felt frozen in time and all he could see was Bruce’s face, uncomfortable, angry and sad, and he saw the same thing he saw when the man had mentioned Harlem and he finally recognised it.

Agony – agony in remembering the lives he’s ended, the homes he has destroy, and agony in knowing that he has failed and that the one thing that everyone has control over – the _one_ thing – has been ripped from his grasp. Tony saw the short, unassuming man with eyes that could melt butter and a cheeky smile to match and he decided that this was not okay – a good man like Bruce should never _ever_ have to feel that way.

Tony knows that if time travel were possible he would have created it already – he’d tried a few times, but goddamn him if he wasn’t going to try again, because Bruce’s explanation, “I got low, I didn’t see an end,” was just too nonchalant not to be a sore spot, and dammit if Tony didn’t want to travel back in time and pull the gun from his hands.

You can’t save everybody; Tony of all people knew that lives ended at the hands of people in countries on the other side of the planet, at the hands of people not even _from_ this planet. The idea that Bruce might not be here today, though, that upset Tony for reasons he couldn’t quite grasp. He could easily admit he liked Bruce – the man was supremely intelligent and in personality he was the yin to Tony’s yang and he didn’t feel alone or misunderstood with Bruce in the room, and that was nice, but it still didn’t explain it.

These beginnings of possible harmony didn’t explain why Tony felt so shocked and sickened to find out the man he’d known for mere hours had attempted suicide. He knew quite a few people who had – it came with his previous profession, but he’d never felt anything quite like this before. Maybe it was because it was obvious a part of Bruce still wanted to succeed.

Tony couldn’t have that, but he had to catch himself as he went to step towards Bruce, to – what? Hug him? Put a hand on his shoulder? Shake this ridiculousness out of him? Probably all of those things, and more, but he stopped himself, because he’s Tony Stark – he’s witty, funny, sexy, clever and a bit of a prat, but he is _not_ a sap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continuing this little tid-bit. Apologies if it's rubbish but I'm enjoying myself so oh well. Feedback is treated like the firstborn - lavishly. (Oh also if anyone was wondering this whole chapter is based on the expression of RDJ's face when the camera flicks back to him and Evans after Ruff's 'I know, I tried' line. Pause it and be sad.)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Agent Coulson is down."

“Agent Coulson is down.”

“A medical team is on its way to your location,” A faceless SHIELD agent insisted.

“They’re here,” Tony felt his heart contract. Fury never paused. His next words confirmed his fears. “They called it.”

There was a silence over the comms, no noise was uttered by any of the agents that had access to speak to his comm. Above him, Steve was silent, but Tony could hear the click of his throat as he swallowed dryly.

Biting his lip, he clunked back to the lab, dismantling his suit as he went.

 

“We’re dead in the air up here. Our communications, the location of the cube… Banner: gone.”

In reality Tony knew that the Hulk had made an exit and that Banner was probably wandering around naked in some rubble right now, but hearing it sucked still. In less than two hours they’d lost Thor, Banner, all of the work that had been done, control of their sky fortress and uncountable SHIELD agents.

They’d lost Coulson. Tony had briefly seen Natasha run past earlier and he swore he saw her face grief-stricken.

“There was an idea…”

 

Tony found himself where Bruce’s cage used to sit, before its vicious plunge back to earth. No one knew if Thor was still alive – it was likely but not a certainty. They hadn’t done tests, anyhow. Steve walked in in those stupid boots and his skin tight shirt and asked if the guy was married, for God’s sake. He was an idiot, Tony replied, for taking on Loki alone.

“Is this the first time you lost a soldier?” Rogers asked, and this angered Tony beyond reason.

“We are _not_ soldiers,” he turned and replied, looking directly into Rogers’ eyes, knowing that the grief and the glint of wetness in his eyes was in full view. He barely cared – Rogers was a self-righteous bastard and he had no right to call Coulson a soldier – none of them were. Coulson was a field agent and a good man, Natasha a spy, he and Banner were _scientists_ , not soldiers.

He thinks of Pepper then, and her easy smiles to Coulson, and his to her, and that cellist in Portland and he decided none of this was fair, and then he thought of nothing except the idea he’d just had – this was personal.

“Son of a bitch.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wasn't entirely sure if I should continue this, but I got one comment asking me to and that was enough for me. I always appreciate feedback. I'm noot sure if this chapter is too angsty or not angsty enough but we all really love Coulson.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You're tip-toeing big man,"

The jolt of the body beneath his screwdriver was visible even through the non-tailored shirt and the jerk of the arm carefully manipulating the figures on the gamma receiver caused a spark to shoot out of the moderately dangerous piece of equipment but Tony was pleased enough with bark from Bruce that was all human and nothing green or monster-like, from the videos he’d watched.

He stared straight into the eyes but they betrayed nothing, they stayed deep brown and hid so much more than Tony knew, but there wasn’t even a hint of green. Bruce’s breathing was even but the wrinkles around his eyes became more pronounce and a little grin appeared on his tanned face that wouldn’t be bitten down, even though the tongue Bruce poked out to cover his bottom lip showed Tony he wanted to. The smile was almost disbelieving and also slightly bemused, and it also very clearly asked ‘are you really that much of an idiot?’

Tony though he saw something else in his eyes, though – surprise, definitely, but maybe something else – relief? Tony knew this guy’s history with his little (big) green problem, and he knew Banner spent a lot of time on the run and he really knew that the scientist in front of his was afraid of the Hulk. The man would be cautious to be around anyone who could be harmed by the ‘Other Guy’; hell, had he even touched anyone recently other than to check their vital signs or administer medical support?

Maybe the man wasn’t relieved and maybe he was pissed off and trying not to show it, but Tony didn’t think so. Tony believed he _was_ relieved, and maybe even pleased that someone on the planet didn’t fear him and trusted him to have sufficient control over the Hulk. Tony knew that poking him with a screwdriver was stupid, but his instincts rarely betrayed; Steve Rogers did instead.

“Are you nuts?” he asked, and Tony automatically disliked him. His reply was truthful, he may be nuts, and he made Bruce actually laugh, but right now he was incredible curious. That smile was still on Bruce’s face and Tony thought maybe it hadn’t been there for a while, and so he asked questions just as any scientistic would. “What’s your secret, mellow jazz; bongo drums; a huge bag of weed?”

Steve ruins the moment even more by reminding Banner just how many puny people he could crush and how even Captain America feared him a little bit. Bruce’s mood deflated a little, but he still had a distant smile on his face.

“… you need to strut,” Tony told him, because that would really be something to see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have watched this scene SO many times *passes out from Science Bros overdose and Captain Cockblock symptoms.*


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Good aim indeed.

They had been sitting in Tony’s lab for the last hour and a half in silence. Tony was rewiring a section of the Mark VII arm plating to include more of the miniature hydrogen rockets and Bruce was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the workbench walking around in his own head, communicating to the Hulk. That was a thing he did now. Bruce didn’t live at Stark Tower permanently, but he would stay for periods of time which was usually spent split between researching with Tony and meditating in a room Tony and he had designed just weeks after the Chitauri attack.

From what Tony could tell, Bruce had been frankly amazed with how capable he was of speaking to the Hulk after that fight, even though Tony thought it was a simple matter of letting the Hulk in. The Hulk was a lot more present in Bruce, and when he was out, Bruce was present in the Hulk. It seemed that they were able to negotiate, at least, even if it took Bruce hours to keep him quiet.

“Tell Big Green I say hi,” Tony said before going back to his work. Belately, Bruce replied.

“He knows,” he said absently, and silence, save for the sparks of electricity and the occasional noise of equipment, descended once again. Bruce breathed in heavily a few times, Tony grunted once when he nearly ran an electric pulse through his finger and JARVIS was absolutely silent.

“Is he being difficult?” Tony asked as he put his arm plate back onto the suit. Bruce jumped a little and looked up before smiling slightly.

“No. He’s just… curious. He was asking about you, as well as he could.” Bruce rubbed his face and swung his legs around so they were dangling off the edge of the bench. He cracked his knuckles as Tony stood up from where he was packing away the Mark VII.

“I hope you were nice,” Tony said with mock concern.

“I was truthful,” Bruce shot back and they both laughed weakly, tired from the brainwork they’d done in the last few hours. Bruce was about to say something else when Tony cut in.

“Why’d you do it?” He asked quickly, like he was almost embarrassed to ask, and that wasn’t like Tony at all. Tony was never afraid of anything, not even flying to the other end of the universe to throw a missile at a deadly race of aliens.

“Do what?” Bruce asked, and his voice was slightly husky from lack of use. His throat clicked as he swallowed and he absently wished he had a glass of water. Instead he pooled his saliva recourses and looked up at Tony, his shaggy hair obscuring his vision only slightly.

“Why’d you let him out during the Chitauri invasion?”

It was a valid question. At the time Bruce had no control over the Hulk, only enmity and fear of him, and for all anyone knew the Hulk would only make matters worse – Manhattan was already all but destroyed. Adding in an enormous green rage monster could have been absolutely disastrous.

“Well, I landed naked in a warehouse and a man gave me trousers,” he said after some time, when Tony was about to turn back to his work. He watched Tony’s face as an eyebrow slowly rose in complete confusion.

“It – not the trousers, Tony. I asked if I’d hurt anyone, and he said that there was no one around the hurt. I said that it was lucky, but he just looked me dead in the eye and said ‘or just good aim. You were awake when you fell’.”

Tony still wasn’t catching on, though.

“He saw the whole thing, Tony, and he wasn’t afraid of me. A man who had never met me saw the Hulk fall out of the sky, and he saw him land in a deserted warehouse, and in his mind he decided it was on purpose. Who am I to say it wasn’t? Maybe the Hulk doesn’t want to hurt people – maybe he really does have good aim.”

Tony looked at him for a whole thirty seconds before turning away. All he could see in his mind’s eye was the footage of him falling from the sky and the heart wrenching seconds where he wasn’t slowing down, and then a giant blur crushing into a building, shielding Iron Man from being squished.

Good aim indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So first chapter that wasn't wholly based of the film script - hope it's okay. Also I think that scene is entirely unrecognised as being a *big deal*, because it really was for me.  
> Reviews are food for my brain :)


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